Instructor or Teaching Assistant FAQs - Office of Institutional Research (2024)

The Office of Institutional Research (IR) sets the default evaluation start and end dates (the “evaluation window”) based on the following:

Evaluation Schedule Guidelines

The current (default) evaluation schedule is determined based on the Registrar’s calendar and the Vice Provost’s policy. An evaluation window is defined by a start date and an end date. The start date is typically scheduled nine (9) calendar days before the end date. On the start date, students receive emails inviting them to fill out their evaluation surveys online. The end date is when all course-related activities are concluded and before students take their finals and/or submit their final presentations/reports/projects. For courses in the main session (001), the end date is the date before the university’s final exam period.

Currently, faculty can set their start dates. The start date should not be more than 14 days before the end date (or more than 21 days for a fall semester, to account for the Thanksgiving break). For example, in a fall semester, if the end date is December 4, the default start date is November 28, and the earliest start date is November 14.

Faculty are encouraged to keep the end dates. There are concerns that students’ feedback can be impacted after they take their finals and/or after they learn about their grades. Yet, situations arise such that evaluations cannot be completed during the pre-defined window, and faculty can still make changes to accommodate their unique circ*mstances.

Faculty may want to keep their evaluation window open for at least nine days so that students have ample opportunities to fill out their responses.

Changing the evaluation schedule is an easy, two-step process.

Check your email and click on the evaluation link. A new window will open.
Make changes to the start date. We recommend that you keep the end date, but it can be changed if necessary.

Once faculty finalize their schedules, they need to select a particular date within their evaluation window to have their students complete the evaluation in class. Faculty also need to inform students of this date. The IR office does not keep track of the in-class evaluation date, and it is the instructor’s responsibility to set the schedule and conduct the evaluation in class accordingly.

Online instructors should try to follow the steps outlined on the Evaluation Process tab in the Faculty section. They are welcome to modify the general guidelines to accommodate their unique circ*mstances. Regardless, instructors should follow these two important guidelines:

Instructors should ask a student to volunteer to proctor the evaluation and follow the usual in-class guidelines. However, when this is impractical, instructors must verbally inform students of the evaluation process. The following statement should be read by whoever proctors the evaluation:

Learning Experience Evaluations are your opportunity to provide feedback to your instructor. USC and its faculty take these evaluations very seriously, as they provide valuable information that faculty and schools can use to improve teaching. It is important to remember that the learning process is collaborative and requires significant effort from the instructor, individual students, and the class as a whole. Please provide a thoughtful assessment of their experience, as well as of their own effort, with comments focused on specific aspects of instruction or the course. Comments on personal characteristics of the instructor are not appropriate and will not be considered. Evaluations should be completed individually with no undue influence by either a student or instructor. Should any inappropriate behavior occur, it will be reported to the Office of Institutional Research.

Instructors and students should not see each other while students are completing their evaluations. For example, instructors may choose to step out of their room or they can black out their screen(s).

The following rules of thumb are intended to help faculty set their schedules when multiple instructors (including TAs) teach a course. The IR office does not set firm policy on how evaluations are completed, and relies on instructors to establish appropriate procedures.

If a course has an instructor and multiple TAs, and the TAs do not have any independent sections (labs or discussions), the TAs should follow the instructor’s schedule. They should NOT modify the evaluation schedule, as this will overwrite the instructor’s schedule. Students will answer questions for both their instructor and TA when they fill out their surveys.
TAs with independent labs or discussion sections will be treated as instructors and evaluated separately. Students will receive separate evaluation links for them.

There are a few ways to schedule evaluations for classes with multiple instructors (as in team-taught courses):

By default, all instructors are evaluated during the same evaluation window, unless each instructor has a designated section ID in the Student Information System. Instructors should agree on the evaluation window and make necessary changes to the start date.
When all instructors teach throughout the semester, it is best to have students evaluate them at the same time at the end of the semester. This means one instructor must agree to conduct the evaluation for all of them. Students will be asked to select the instructor(s) they want to evaluate in the survey.
If instructors want separate evaluations (e.g. Tuesday evaluation for instructor A and Thursday evaluation for instructor B), they should first agree on the evaluation schedule. Students can complete separate evaluations for different instructors by returning to the same survey form and selecting the individuals they want to evaluate.
When each instructor in a team-taught course teaches only a few weeks during the semester (e.g. the first instructor teaches the first eight weeks and the second teaches the latter eight weeks), it may be best to conduct separate evaluations at different times during the semester. Please contact your department administrator as soon as possible and let them know your situation. The department admin will work with IR to create a manual process so that you and your co-teachers can conduct your evaluation on separate dates.

If you believe there is an error, please first contact your department to resolve the issue. In general, all courses listed in the Student Information System (SIS) are evaluated. IR excludes (or adds) instructors and/or courses only when we receive departmental authorizations. You may not be evaluated because:

We were instructed not to evaluate you or the course you teach.
You are not listed as an instructor in SIS for the course you teach.
You are one of many instructors in a team-taught course, and SIS lists only the lead instructors (or a department coordinator).

While students receive multiple email reminders throughout the scheduled evaluation window, the best way to ensure high student response rates is your active participation in the evaluation process. Instructors are encouraged to follow up with the class if the response rate is low. The following insights may be helpful:

Historical data suggest that the majority of students completed the evaluation online from Tuesday to Thursday, between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM.
The majority of students complete the evaluation by accessing the evaluation links in emails. (Students can also access their evaluation in Blackboard under the Course Evaluations tab.)
You may want to remind students to bring their Internet-enabled devices to class on the in-class evaluation dates.
The response rate tends to increase with additional email reminders. You can email your students directly from the Evaluation Window webpage by following these steps: